The first visit of the "No-Do blacks" to Barcelona turns 75 years

On July 9, 1951, 75 years ago, the Harlem Globetrotters visited Catalonia for the first time with a game that gathered 12,000 spectators at the Pavelló de l’Esport on Llançà street in Barcelona. A sign of the event's significance was the presence in the box seats of José Ibáñez Martín, Minister of National Education, and Felipe Acedo Colunga, civil governor.“Rarely will we be able to see glimpses of their hilarious exhibition again, a basketball as perfect as the one Abe Saperstein’s negroes offered us,” explained the article that Mundo Deportivo published two days later, on July 11. A few weeks earlier, the sports newspaper had advertised the Harlem Globetrotters as “the negroes of the No-Do”.The invited opponent of the day was the Boston Wirlwinds, who lost to the Harlem Globetrotters (47-44). Before this exhibition, another friendly match was played in which the Catalan team lost to Sewanee University (46-40).